Graduate Students

Ed Arrizabalaga

About Ed

Edward Arrizabalaga is a direct-track PhD candidate in history. He graduated summa cum laude from Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1969 with a BA in Political Science. He received a JD degree in law from the University of Michigan in 1975. He retired from the United States Foreign Service in September, 2002.

Arrizabalaga was a Graduate Teaching Assistant from August, 2003 to May, 2008. He is currently PhD ABD, with an expected completion date of December, 2011. His major field of study is Modern America under Dr. Larry Gerber and Dr. William Trimble. His minor fields are Early America under Dr. Kenneth Noe and the History of Technology under Dr. James Hansen. His breadth field is Latin American History. To date he has taught four courses in the History of Technology at Auburn University.

Arrizabalaga's dissertation-in-progress is a biography of Vice-Admiral Alfred Wilkinson Johnson, an important figure in American naval history during the first half of the twentieth century with respect to the development of both U.S. naval aviation and U.S. naval radar. He is currently preparing a paper on Vice-Admiral Johnson's role as the officer in charge of the naval bombing trials of 1921, which involved the participation of General Billy Mitchell.

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Andrew Baird

About Andrew

Andrew Baird is a doctoral candidate in the field of history of technology. He received a B.A. with honors from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his M.A. from Auburn . He is currently working with Professor Jim Hansen, focusing on aerospace history. His forthcoming dissertation, "How to Land on the Moon in 10 Years or Less: Bill Tindall and the Role of Data Coordination in the Success of Project Apollo," examines the life of one of the many unsung engineers and managers who were essential to the functioning of America 's manned space program. Baird's presentation at NASA's 2006 MAPLD International Conference in Washington, D.C. in September highlighted Tindall's contribution to the development of the Apollo guidance software as well as his work as chief of data priority coordination.

Following his service as Auburn's chapter president for the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society, Baird was recognized with the Robert L. Partin Award for service to the history department. He also received the Milo B. Howard Dissertation Research Award and the Melvin Kranzberg Award for the Outstanding Paper in the History of Technology from the department in 2006.

Baird currently serves on the department's Information Technology and Teaching Evaluation Committees. He returns to the Technology and Civilization program for the 2006-07 academic year after a year teaching World History. He is married with two fast-growing children.

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Andrew Baker

About Andrew

Served as an adjunct instructor at Anderson University, Tri-County Technical College, Greenville Technical College Winner of the 2011 Colonial Dames Best paper in American history Award at Clemson University for “A Serious Sense of Humor: James C. Caff and the Writing of Southern History.”

South Carolina native

I am studying American history, particularly interested in 19th Century US. I will likely be working with Dr. Kelly Kennington.

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Christopher Bishop

About Christopher

Christopher Bishop is a graduate instructor and PhD student (ABD) in Modern US History. Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, Bishop received his BA from Erskine College and his MA from Western Carolina University.

While at Western Carolina, he researched, wrote, and published a short book, A Beautiful Horizon: An Illustrated History of the Arts at Western Carolina University, to commemorate the founding of WCU's College of Fine and Performing Arts.

In 2011, he published an article in Methodist History entitled, "Southern Methodism and the New South Creed: A Reevaluation of the Controversy Surrounding the Establishment of Vanderbilt University." Bishop's current research focuses on Methodism and the growth of the middle class in the New South for a dissertation under the direction of Dr. Charles A. Israel. In addition, Bishop is also currently writing a paper exploring life in the Civilian Conservation Corps for a collection of essays to be published by the University of South Carolina Press.

Meredith Bocian

About Meredith

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Stan Brown

About Stan

Stan Brown received his B.A. from Duke University and M.A. in history from the University of Georgia. He researches Georgia history, focusing on the Civil War and Reconstruction era. He has been published in the Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians.

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Jacob Clawson

About Jacob

Jacob Clawson is a Ph.D. student majoring in American history prior to 1865 under Dr. Kenneth Noe and Dr. Adam Jortner. He is also pursuing minor fields in American history since 1865 and world history, with Dr. David Carter and Dr. Morris Bian, respectively. He came to Auburn in 2011 after receiving a B.S. (History) and B.S. Ed. (Social Science Education) from Western Carolina University. While at Western, he had the privilege of completing a teaching internship at the Nantahala School in Topton, North Carolina, where he gained experience teaching United States History, World History, and Civics and Economics. In addition to obtaining teaching experience at Western, he also completed a senior thesis that used the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 as a lens to examine the interplay between military strategy and the Presidential election of that same year.

At Auburn, his research interests are still in the field of war and society in the nineteenth century United States. Moving past the Civil War, his research now focuses Reconstruction, looking at irregular and informal modes of warfare and political violence outside the chronological scope of declared wars and the geography of what is traditionally viewed as a battlefield. More specifically, his research investigates southern militias and paramilitary organizations. His dissertation will examine how militia service and the politics of militia formation informed how both black and white southerners defined and redefined notions of citizenship and manhood in the volatile political milieu of the postbellum South. He is also interested in the twentieth century South and the history of American conservatism.

His article, “Labor in the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: The Laborers International Union, the Philpott Administration, and Labor Relations at Auburn University, 1972-1978,” will appear in The Alabama Review in 2014. He has also written review essays and book reviews for the Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians, the North Carolina Historical Review, Essays in History, and H-Net. Moreover, he is currently a member of the Southern Historical Association, the Society of Civil War Historians, and the Society for Military History.

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Robert Collins

About Robert

Rob Collins earned his B.A. in German Literature at Emory University in 1986. At Auburn he is studying early American and American Indian history with Dr. Kathryn H. Braund. His primary research project is a study of the German and French papers of Lukas Vischer, a native of Basel, Switzerland, who roamed the United States, Canada, and Mexico from 1823 to 1838. Rob's article "A Swiss Traveler in the Creek Nation: The Diary of Lukas Vischer, March 1824" appeared in the October 2006 Alabama Review.

Rob is also working on a history of Brewton, Alabama, and the Conecuh valley. While studying at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Rob was editor of the 2005 edition of the Vulcan Historical Review student journal. The edition received a 2006 Nash History Journal prize (second place) from Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, Inc.

Rob has worked as a journalist in Georgia and Florida. Since settling in Birmingham in 1992 he has worked as a writer, computer support technician, and as a policy analyst for Arise Citizens' Policy Project in Montgomery. Rob also taught classes in journalism and web design, respectively, for the University of Montevallo and the UAB continuing education program.

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Alex Colvin

About Alex

Alex earned her Bachelor's degree in history from Samford University in 2012. She is currently a direct track PhD student at Auburn studying under Dr. Kathryn Braund. In October of 2015 she passed her comprehensive exams with a major in US History to 1865 and minors in US History since 1865 and European History 1500-1789. Her dissertation, tentatively titled "Sehoy's Legacy: Kin, Gender, and Race in a Tensaw Community," will examine the Creek Indian community on the Tensaw and how their involvement in the Euro-American economy impacted their traditional cultural definitions and practices.

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Perry Colvin

About Perry

Perry Colvin came to Auburn as a Direct Track PhD student from St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he wrote his undergraduate thesis on Winston Churchill's impact on the development of early British military aviation. Following his undergraduate work, Perry spent a year at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery where he worked on an upcoming show on the War of 1812. His research interests focus on Modern British political and military history, and Aviation History. At Auburn Perry is working with Dr. Bill Trimble and Dr. Mark Sheftall to continue his research on Churchill's aviation involvement as well as early British politics and aviation as a whole.

Ryan Conway

About Ryan

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Brett Derbes

About Brett

Brett Derbes is a doctoral student (ABD) whose academic focus is on 19th Century United States History, Southern History, and Civil War & Reconstruction under the direction of Professor Kenneth W. Noe and Professor Kelly Kennington. His minor fields are in Latin American Studies with Professor Tiffany Sippial and Archival Studies with Professor Reagan L. Grimsley. His dissertation is titled, “Prisoners Make War: The Production of Military Supplies with Inmate Labor at Confederate State Penitentiaries during the Civil War.”

In 2007 Brett earned a Bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in secondary education from the University of North Texas. In 2011 he received a Master's degree in history from the University of North Texas under the direction of Professors Richard G. Lowe, Randolph B. Campbell, and Richard B. McCaslin.

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Toby Doran

About Toby

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Julie Garner

About Julie

Julie Garner is a PhD student concentrating on US history after 1865. She will also focus on minor fields in Public History and US history before 1865. Julie earned her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and History from Clemson University. (Go Tigers!) After receiving a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to South Korea, she returned to get her masters here at Auburn University. (War Eagle!) She plans to focus her research on public memory, commemorations, and competing narratives of the Civil Rights movement and the Civil War in Selma, Alabama.

Erik Haeuser

About Erik

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Heather Haley

About Heather

Heather Haley received a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History and a Master of Arts degree in History with a concentration in Public History from Texas State University. A California native and former graduate teaching fellow in the History Department at Texas State, she served as President of the Sigma Zeta Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta and volunteered as an oral history transcriber with the East Texas War and Memory Project and The National Museum of the Pacific War. Heather has a penchant for conducting oral histories including the initial research, interview process, and concluding transcription so that the inclusion of oral history creates a more thorough and personal documentation of historical events. Her research and analysis of Agent Orange dispersal in Vietnam, with recent publication in Sound Historian, was well-received by editors, in part, due to the inclusion of such narratives. Her thesis chapter, “Defoliating Fence and Foxhole: An Unconventional Response to an Irregular Threat along the Korean DMZ, 1967-1969,” will be published in Federal History, the journal of the Society for History in the Federal Government, in the Spring of 2017.

Jason Hewer

About Jason

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Neil Humphrey

About Neil

Neil has a BA in history from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. His major area of interest is British working class history in the Georgian and Victorian periods, with particular interests in social, cultural, and labor history. His major professor at Auburn is Dr. Ferguson.

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Budd Jones

About Budd

Budd Jones is a part time graduate student concentrating in the history of technology. He has not yet selected a major field advisor and is still deciding upon minor fields. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the US Air Force Academy (history), his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (history). He completed terminal degree studies at Duke to include class work and comprehensive examinations, but left the program to attend to family matters without completing his dissertation. Budd has over twenty years of teaching experience at the US Air Force Academy and the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College.

Mary Kitts

About Mary

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Lydia E. LaFavor

About Lydia

Lydia is a Ph. D. student working with Professor Alan Meyer. She received her B.S. in History with a minor in Russian from the United States Air Force Academy in 2007. She also received an M.A. in Intelligence Studies with a concentration in Political-Military Intelligence from American Military University in 2011. Her fields include the History of Technology, Modern Europe, and World History. Specifically, her research interests include the history of Soviet air defense technologies and the constructed values of these systems across episodes of transnational proliferation.

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Angelica Marini

About Angelica

Angelica Marini received a BA from Florida State University in 2003 and an MA in Historical Studies in 2007 from University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is currently in her fourth year in the PhD program with a major concentration area in US History since 1865. Her research and dissertation topic will focus on sexuality and gender in the South.

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Corey Markum

About Corey

Corey is an ABD doctoral student under Dr. Kenneth Noe, specializing in the American Civil War and American Religious History. His dissertation explores the tensions between ecclesiastical identity and sociopolitical identity in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS) leading up to and during the American Civil War. Dr. Charles Israel and Dr. Adam Jortner are his other committee members. Having recently completed a research fellowship at the Duke University Summer Wesley Seminar, Corey and his family have moved to Henderson, TN, where he is an Instructor of History at Freed-Hardeman University. Although he no longer resides in Auburn, Corey proudly dons the orange and blue for every football game (and most other days as well!).

Lauren Mata

About Lauren

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Joseph McCall

About Joseph

I am a doctoral candidate in the history department at Auburn University. Please allow this brief outline to introduce some of my research goals and objectives for my dissertation on the Appalachian Trail and specifically, the Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club located in Lynchburg, Virginia. My son and I hiked about 1500 miles of the trail southbound from Maine in 1996. I hope to write a study which will illustrate the role played by this local club in shaping the trail. I am especially interested in local forces that helped shape the trail.

Benton MacKaye, the founder of the Appalachian Trail, had the rare capacity to see liminal landscapes. His eyes could take a photograph of a ridge line, a valley, or a meandering country byway and see all as a threshold, with their collective past, present and future, on what is best described as the emulsion paper of his mind. All seemed to merge into a vision of that landscape's environments: the geologic, technologic, and ecologic. This ability, forged during a career that included the nascent forestry and wilderness movements, spanned eras critical to the understanding of American environmental history. MacKaye’s lifespan allowed him to observe and interact with the seminal figures of environmental thought and action. Such luminaries as John Wesley Powell, George Perkins Marsh, Gifford Pinchot, Clarence Stein, Lewis Mumford, Allen Geddes, Aldo Leopold, and Gaylord Nelson were significant teachers, contemporaries and friends. MacKaye was a thinker primarily, but also a figure who sought action to further his visions for his town, region, country, and world. All would be guided by what he described as a geotechnic philosophy. His philosophy included first-hand exposure and involvement spanning the eras of the Progressives to the modern wilderness and environmental movements.

My study will attempt to examine how the Natural Bridge Appalachian Trail Club section of the trail, less than one hundred miles long through the Virginia Appalachian mountain range, reflects the impact of the geographic, cultural, social, and political shaping of the broad themes of forestry, regional planning, wilderness preservation, and outdoor recreation. MacKaye's public life is like a "river" that "runs through it," from its inception to its current status as an iconic and bucolic American treasure. MacKaye saw all human activity regarding the environment as a landscape to be shaped, preserved, conserved and utilized by people. My study will focus on how his vision served as the catalyst for the Appalachian Trail, but also how the historic path it follows was made manifest and sometimes diverted from his founding aspirations. It will be a local environmental history writ large, but with an eye towards how vision becomes reality and how an active citizenry can attempt to ameliorate what MacKaye saw as significant pitfalls of modernism in the post-World War I years which continue to be relevant today.

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Taylor McGaughy

About Taylor

Taylor finished his BS in History at the University of Montevallo in 2006 and his MA in History at Auburn in 2008. His research pertains to eighteenth-century British Indian policy, frontier interracial violence, the jurisprudential divergence between English common law and Native reciprocal justice, and Anglo-Creek diplomacy. Taylor studies colonial American history and ethnohistory under Dr. Kathryn E. Holland Braund, and is also interested in the Atlantic world, early modern Britain, the American Civil War, and Public History.

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J. Gregory McLamb

About Gregory

Greg is originally from Four Points, North Carolina and holds a B.A. in history from Western Carolina University and an M.A. in history from Auburn University. Before accepting a position at Western Carolina he worked for five years as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Auburn's world history program. He has published a book review with The Alabama Review>and presented research at regional and national conferences. His professional interests include oral history, modern southern history, Appalachian studies and military aviation. He is currently in his sixth year at Auburn and is married to Amelia Schlott McLamb of Franklin, North Carolina.

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Michael Megelsh

About Michael

Michael earned his B.A. from Thomas Edison State College and his M.A. from Liberty University. His primary area of study is 19th century U.S. history, and his specific interests include the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Westward Expansion.

Jordan Miles

About Jordan

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John Mohr

About John

John Mohr is a PhD candidate with a focus on the history of technology. He received his BA in history and German language and culture from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. John is working on the history of the automobile with Dr. David Lucsko. He is primarily interested in automobile manufacturing in the United States, but he has also written on industrial policy, marketing strategy, business history, and consumer advocacy.

John is especially interested in the relationship between the political history of the American South and the automobile industry. He studies the history of so-called “transplant” factories: manufacturing plants in the United States owned by foreign automakers. His research focuses on the relationship between Southern states, politicians, and manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and Kia. He studies how the South’s political traditions have shaped the reorganization of the American auto industry, and vice-versa.

John is the recipient of the 2013 Richard Scharchburg Student Paper Award, presented by the Society of Automotive Historians for "The Soft Sell: Gender, Advertising, and the Chevrolet Corvair." He has conducted several conference presentations, most recently on “Globalization and the Tire Industry in Alabama” at the Southern Studies Conference at Auburn University in Montgomery, February 2017. He is a prolific contributor to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, having authored entries on Boeing, Airbus, Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, and numerous others. Currently, he works as an instructor in the History Department.

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Graham Neeley

About Graham

Graham Neeley graduated from Huntingdon College with a BA in history in Spring 2011. Following graduation, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the University of West Alabama traveling throughout the Alabama Black Belt conducting oral history interviews. Currently, he is employed as a Curator at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. While at Auburn, Graham plans to study public history and Alabama historiography.

Thereza Oleinick

About Thereza

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Jennifer Pequignot

About Jennifer

Jen Pequignot is a PhD student concentrating in US history since 1865 under the supervision of Dr. Ruth Crocker and Dr. David Carter. She has minor fields in US history to 1865, working with Dr. Kelly Kennington, and in women and gender history with Dr. Tiffany Sippial. Jen earned her BA from Wilmington College (history) in 2008 and her MA from Miami University (history) in 2010. Her research interests focus on gender, visual culture, and consumer culture. Jen's current research explores the ways in which De Beers diamond engagement ring advertisements both reflected and prescribed gender roles for middle-class Americans from 1939 through the 1980s.

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Ian Pettus

About Ian

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Rebecca Powell

About Rebecca

Rebecca Powell is a PhD student concentrating on US history to 1865 under the supervision of Dr. Kenneth Noe, and is also working with Dr. Kelly Kennington. She has minor fields in gender history, working with Dr. Ruth Crocker, and Latin American History, working with Dr. Tiffany Sippial. Rebecca earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame (history and Spanish). Rebecca plans to research gender and the Civil War for her dissertation, which will be directed by Dr. Kenneth Noe.

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Thomas Ritchie

About Thomas

Thomas Ritchie is a PhD student focusing on American history since 1865. A graduate of Clemson University (BA 06, MA 09), his research interests include race relations in the American South, the civil rights movement, and Southern identity. Before he served as a Graduate Assistant in History, he was a Graduate Assistant in the Honors College, where he worked with Dr. Paul Harris. Under the direction of Dr. David Carter, he is currently writing his dissertation on Harvey Gantt.

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Matthew Robinson

About Matthew

Matthew Robinson is a first-year Master's student at Auburn. His focus is on Early American and Native American History under Dr. Kathryn Braund. He is also pursing a certificate in Public History under Dr. Keith Hebert. Matthew graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor's in History. Currently, he is employed as a Park Guide at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.

Greg Schmidt

About Greg

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Jonathan Shafer

About Jonathan

Jonathan Shafer entered Auburn's doctoral history program in the fall of 2011. Before moving to Alabama, he studied at the University of Detroit Mercy (BS Chemistry, BA History '09) and Wayne State University (MA History '11) in his home state of Michigan. At Auburn, Jonathan's research will address the impact of auto travel on tourism in the American West ca. 1880-1930.

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Joshua Shiver

About Joshua

After receiving his B.A. in history from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Josh received his M.A. in history from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington under Dr. Chris Fonvielle. His M.A. research focused on the role of personal politics in the unraveling of the first and second Fort Fisher expeditions in December and January 1865. As a Ph.D. student, Josh has continued to focus on the relational aspects of the Civil War by examining the influence and role of emotional bonds on soldier motivation, under Dr. Kenneth Noe. He also studies public history under Dr. Keith Hebert and colonial history under Dr. Kathryn Braund.

Josh has peer-reviewed publications in the United States Military History Review, North Carolina Historical Review, and the Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians. He also has expansive public history experience working with the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center in Columbus, Georgia as well as the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

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Victoria Skelton

About Victoria

Victoria Skelton conducts research in the field of Modern European history, with particular interest/focus in Cold War Italy, women and gender history, film, and cultural history, working with Dr. Eden McLean as her advisor. She received her B.A. in History from Texas A&M University in 2014.

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Tom Szendrey

About Tom

Thomas Szendrey received his undergraduate degree at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, and his Master of Social Sciences from Edinboro Univeristy in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. Apart from being a student he has also worked as a lobbyist for the Coalitions for America; a translator for BELBAL, Hungary; an ESL teacher in the Republic of Korea; and a winemaker for Heritage Wine Cellars.

His primary field of interest is the antebellum United States, with an eye toward sectional differentiation. Thomas is also interested in Modern Europe and Modern U.S. Further, he tends to examine the link between high levels of organization and its relationship to violence. He enjoys Cleveland Browns football.

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Peter R. Thomas, Jr.

About Peter

Peter holds undergraduate degrees from Emory & Henry College, and he earned his M.A. in American History from the University of North Florida. His academic research looks at the transition from citizen to soldier during the American Civil War, particularly focusing on how interactions with natural landscapes shaped the soldiering experience. He has written book reviews for various historical journals, worked at several Northeast Florida historical societies, and collaborated on a smartphone application project that offers self-guided history tours of Jacksonville, Florida.

Peter currently works as a graduate teaching assistant in Auburn’s History Department, and also as an intern with the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities. Peter spent this past summer working for the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

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Matthew Vogeler

About Matthew

Matt graduated from Missouri State University in 2008 with an MA in History. His thesis focused on the demise of Senator David Rice Atchison's political career in the Missouri General Assembly from 1848 to 1856. A chapter of the thesis was recently presented as a paper to the Mid-America Conference on History in Springfield, Missouri. Matt has continued his education at Auburn University where he plans to work with Dr. Kenneth Noe in the American Civil War era.

Zachary Walls

About Zachary

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Shari L. Williams

About Shari

Shari L. Williams is a native of Akron, Ohio. She is a second year PhD student focusing in U.S. History since 1865 with a minor field in Public History. Her research interest is in the past, present and future of historic rural landscapes, traditions, and sites in Alabama's Black Belt with a specific focus on African-American historic landscapes. She developed this interest over the past six years while working as a non-profit volunteer in public history and historic preservation in Macon County. She holds a BS in Journalism from Bowling Green State University and a Masters in Public Administration from Memphis State University.

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Daniel Williams

About Daniel

Daniel Williams is a fourth-year PhD student originally from Eastman, Georgia. He is working with Dr. Adam Jortner on Baptist missionaries to the Native American tribes of the Old Northwest. He earned his bachelor's degree in history from Mercer University and his Master of Divinity degree from Beeson Divinity School (Samford University). His undergraduate senior thesis, “Origins of Free Will Baptists in Georgia,” was published by both the Georgia Baptist and Georgia Free Will Baptist Historical Societies. Daniel has also worked in Baptist archives in both Georgia and Alabama.

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Max Zinner

About Max

I completed my undergraduate studies here at Auburn University with degrees in anthropology and history. My primary interest is the evolution of modern European identity with a focus on the impact of globalism and increased migration, especially from Islamic countries. Some of my other interests include the history and culture surrounding beer and brewing in the western world and the history of Auburn University, particularly when it comes to the perception and treatment of minority groups such as the LGBT community.